Ch.12 - Humanistic and Positive Psychology Flashcards
Humanistic Tradition
- an area of philosophy that emphasizes the personal worth of the individual and the importance of human values
- focuses on higher human experience like creativity and human potential
- introspective
- values unique person
- non-deterministic: advocates free will
Phenomenology
• one’s conscious experience of the world, everything a person hears, feels, and thinks
Free Will
The realization that only one’s present experience matters, as the past is gone and the future has yet to happen so we can choose what to think, feel, and do
Construal
- everyone’s is different
- forms the basis of how you live
- free will is achieved by choosing your construal
Introspection
• perceptions and thought processes
Existentialism
- A reaction against rationalism, science, and the industrial revolution
- regain contact with the experience of being alive and aware
- asks many “why” questions
Thrown-ness
- important basis of experience
- being thrown into modern society is difficult as there seems to have no overarching meaning
- religion plays a smaller role in creating meaning and purpose compared to the past, no modern substitutes have emerged
Angst
Intense feeling of internal emotional strife
Existential Crisis
Feeling of uneasiness about meaning and choice in life
Anguish
- felt by everyone
* choices are never perfect and lead to both good and bad outcomes
Forlornness
- desolate, lonely, sad, forsaken
* each person must make their own choices
Despair
• the awareness that many outcomes are beyond our control
Optimistic Toughness
Acknowledging that things are outside of our control, but we can focus on our own actions
Living in Bad Faith
• ignoring the existential questions and ignoring our moral imperative
Living a Cowardly Lie
• it is important to examine our lives, to realize how fortunate we are to be alive and aware
Authentic Existence
- alternative to bad faith
- coming to terms with existence, being honest, insightful, and morally corrected
- will not relieve loneliness
- life has no meaning beyond what you give it
Becker’s Theory
- humans are capable of being aware that they will die
- we create buffers against constantly being aware of death including self esteem, close relationships, religions, and occupying social roles
Erich Fromm
- dialectical humanism
* reconciles the biological side of human beings and the pressure of societal structure
Dialectical Humanism
- believes that people can transcend determinism through free will
- understands life by determining whether actions benefit others and whether they make the world a better place
Carl Rogers
- core of personality is positive
- suggests the nature of people is basically socialized, forward moving, rational, and realistic
- a need for positive regard and self-actualization can be met with unconditional positive regard leads to self actualization
- a need for positive regard and self actualization can be met with conditional positive regard leads to self discrepancies
Self Discrepancy Theory
• self esteem is defined by the match between how we see ourselves and how we want to see ourselves
Distortion
- getting conditional positive regard
* still feeling anxious
Self-Actualization
Becoming everything one is capable of becoming
Self-Descrepencies
Mismatch between the ideal self and the real self
Rogerian Psychotherapy
- therapist is supportive and nondirective
- therapist is client oriented
- therapist provides the client with unconditional positive regard
- therapist provides empathetic understanding of client’s internal frame of reference
Criticisms of Roger’s Theory
• naive, overly optimistic view of human nature
Client Centered Therapy
- contributed therapeutic techniques
* no evidence
Maslow’s Approach
- study psychologically healthy people to understand human nature, not psychopathological ones
- identified colleagues and historical figures he considered healthy
Peak Experiences
• transcend the self be at one with the world
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- persons must pass through various lower levels before attaining this highest stage
- each level has a basic need that must be met before moving up the hierarchy
- if lower needs are not met growth stops
Physiological Needs
- breathing
- food
- water
- sex
- sleep
- homeostasis
Safety Needs
- security of body
- security of employment
- security of resources
- security of morality
- security of family
- security of property
Belongingness Needs
- friendship
- family
- sexual intimacy
Esteem Needs
- self esteem
- confidence
- achievement
- respect of others
- respect by others
Self-actualization Needs
- morality
- creativity
- spontaneity
- problem solving
- lack of prejudice
- acceptance of facts
B-motives
• self-actualization is the only “being level” motive
D-motives
- deficiency needs
* esteem, belongingness, safety, physiological
Deficiency Motivation
- the lower the needs in the hierarchy, the greater the potency of need
- higher needs appear later in life when we are cognitively able to want meaning and purpose
- higher needs are not necessary, and can be postponed for a while but not forever
Metapathologies
- sickness of the soul
- depression
- alienation
- cynicism
Fully Functioning People
- see the world accurately
- judge people accurately/detect deception
- peak experiences
- experience the world with total absorption
- more accepting of themselves and other
- spontaneous
- not self centered
Desacralizing
- defense mechanisms
* making mundane, no longer having meaning
Resacralizing
- being willing to see the sacred, the eternal, the symbolic
* instill the world human values such as joy and wonder
Criticisms of Maslow’s Theory
- self actualizers were based on his own personal preference
- hierarchy of needs has some evidence that lower levels are stronger than higher levels
- exceptions to the hierarchy of needs exist, like the starving artist trope
Positive Regard
Acceptance and warmth towards a person
Conditions of Worth
Conditions we think we need to meet for other people to accept us
Conditional Positive Regard
Praise and approval that depends on the person acting in ways someone deems is correct
Unconditional Positive Regard
When acceptance is given no matter what the person says or does
Positive Self Regard
Need for affection, love, and respect from other people
George Kelly
- personal construct theory
* implies people look at things through many lenses
Personal Construct Theory
• people actively endeavor to understand the world and construct their own theories about human behavior
Chronically Accessible Constructs
• those that are more easily brought to mind, an individual difference
Sources of Constructs
The way you view your past experiences
Personal Construct System
How you view the world
Sociality Corollary
Understanding another person means understanding their personal construct system
Constructive Alternativism
- The view that any pattern of experience can lead to numerous construals and people choose which construals they use
- personal reality is constructed in the mind, you can choose to construct it differently
Measure of Happiness
- Satisfaction with life
- Satisfaction with how things are going in a life domain
- High level of positive emotion
Hedonic
Pleasure seeking
Eudaimonic
Seeking a meaningful life
Hedonic Treadmill
- study showing that people who had befallen great fortune or great tragedy returned to their preexisting levels of happiness within a year following the event
- the paraplegics never quite made it back to their baseline
Mindfulness
- being alert and aware of your every thought, sensation, and experience
- claims that it reduces stress, improves memory, and helps to free people of disturbing thoughts
Flow
- the optimal experience
- arises when engaging in activities demanding skill and challenge, but that are not too difficult
- challenges are low and skill low: apathy
- challenges are low and skill high: boredom
- challenges are high and skill high: flow
- challenges are high and skill low: anxiety
